Curious Walks Around London

Curious Walks Around London provides an informative and entertaining selection of walks around well-known and some less-visited parts of London. The guide includes Bloomsbury with its literary connections and garden squares; the historic Borough; Whitechapel and Stepney in the East End; Clerkenwell and its associations with monastic orders, prisons and radicalism; parts of the historic and ancient City of London; the stylish area of St James’s and Mayfair; Fleet Street, once synonymous with the printing industry, but also with its religious and legal connections; for those who like their horrible histories the Smithfield walk includes tales of executions, hauntings, plague and debauchery; the execution route from Newgate to Tyburn better known now as the Old Bailey to Marble Arch; Bankside, once the home to theatre, bear baiting and brothels, has seen some of the most dynamic changes in London; and the sedate area of Marylebone with its famous streets and squares. The visitor will see en route many famous landmarks and there will be passing allusions to the supernatural or illegal activities and to interesting buildings. However the book concentrates on oddities, curiosities, strange stories, bizarre connections or those things to be seen in the streets which are so familiar that they are frequently overlooked. The seemingly mundane or the understated can on investigation often turn out to be as fascinating as the best-known of London’s historic monuments. The book is hopefully designed for the reader to walk, look, be informed and entertained and frequently say ‘I never knew that.’